ICT developments and utilization in the Omani banking sector

Alhousary, T; Underwood, J; Xanthidis, D

Abstract

While adopting information and communication technologies (ICT) has become inevitable, the next-level challenge to organizations is how well they are utilizing this technology asset. Almost two decades earlier, which is not a noticeable span of time of the human history, the research focus was on how beneficial adopting technology by organizations was. Nowadays, the focus of the research is shifted primarily to how well the technology should be managed and tuned to achieve the business strategic goals and attain its competitive advantage or secure survival at minimum. This study takes the commercial banking sector in Oman as a sample of a highly ICT-infused sector in the service industry. Its aims to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of managing the information systems run by a sector closely linked to its performance. The performance is the determinant of the competitiveness/surviving level of any organization; banks are no exception. The research methodology comprises of a self-administered questionnaire and an interview. The study was conducted over 6 months. The exploratory nature of this research and the relevant type of data collected (categorical and ordinal) has led to use the descriptive statistics including central-tendency measures. The interviews have triangulated and confirmed the quantitative data collected. The study finds that the selected sector has adopted latest ICT infrastructure in conducting both back-office and front-office business which are adopted by common competitors worldwide. However, the study finds that while the IT infrastructure follows the latest technologies in the field, there is still room to optimize the utilization of this infrastructure by improving its administrative as well as technical management of it.

KEYWORDS: ICT infrastructure, ICT management, banking sector, management IS

Citation

Alhousary, T., Underwood, J., & Xanthidis, D. (2017). ICT developments and utilization in the Omani banking sector. WSEAS Transactions on Business and Economics, 14, 409-416

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jan 1, 2017
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Sep 27, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 27, 2018
• Journal: WSEAS Transactions on Business and Economics
• Print ISSN: 1109-9526
• Electronic ISSN: 2224-2899
• Publisher: World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society
• Volume: 14
• Pages: 409-416
• Publisher URL: http://www.wseas.org/multimedia/journals/economics/2017/a845907-037.php
• Related Public URLs: http://www.wseas.org/cms.action